


When I’m Holding On To You

by lizook12



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 03:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2051469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizook12/pseuds/lizook12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In some odd, messed up way it makes all that previous shit worth it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When I’m Holding On To You

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back from vacation in San Francisco! This idea was sketched out before I ever left, but seeing as I got a little too much sun on our boat trip under the Golden Gate Bridge, it seemed like the right choice to tackle now. 
> 
> As usual, thanks to the incomparable **effie214** for the read through and feedback.
> 
> Title from Miranda Lambert's _Holding On to You_

Groaning, he lowers himself to the couch, hands flattening against the cushion as she settles behind him, her legs bracketing his hips. The feel of her breath against his neck is enough to distract him for a long moment and he scoots back further, completely forgetting his sunburn.

Unfortunately, she reaches for the bottle of aloe on the coffee table at the same time and the friction of both movements sends pain flaring over his ribs, dancing down his back. 

It’s too much and he inhales sharply, presses his eyes closed as she murmurs behind him, her hand gently rubbing the cooling liquid between his shoulder blades. 

In the past—on the island—too much sun had been rough because the best he could do was try to stay hydrated, pack on an extra layer, as uncomfortable as that was. 

Here—now—it’s still as annoying as hell, but having Felicity’s hands soothing his back, comforting and caring, makes that fade. 

And that this happened not while he was running through some hellish jungle or chasing after a madman with one eye, but while he putting together his daughter’s swing set somehow...  

In some odd, messed up way it makes all that previous shit worth it. 

Like all the torture and discomfort of the past led him here, to misplacing his sunscreen, but unable to say no to his little girl who desperately wanted her swings for the weekend. 

To his wife babbling lowly behind him, her skin soft against his as she seemingly picks up his train of thought. 

“Maybe...” Running her hands down his back, she leans forward, chin resting lightly on his shoulder. “We should have gotten the one with the climbing wall.” 

“Swings and a slide is more than enough; do you want to give me grey hair?” 

“Well, you do have one already. And please, it’s a foot off the ground and _you’d_ be showing her exactly how to do it.” 

“Just so she’d know the proper technique.” He glances over his shoulder, eyes narrowing. “And you said that hair was just really blond!” 

Her only response is the slow smile spreading over her face as she squirts more aloe into her hand and slowly, carefully, glides it over his shoulders. 

The heat is practically pouring off him and she wryly thinks that for once she won’t have to fight him for the covers when her thumb drags across a particularly red spot and he jolts forward.

Actually yelps. 

“Shhh...” Ducking down, she blows a cool breath over the irritated skin. “You’ll wake Emma and she was practically...” One hand flattens on his chest, the other massaging aloe into the crimson on his shoulder. “Practically falling asleep at dinner thanks to your insistence that she test the slide over and over.” 

Quickly he turns so that he’s completely facing her, grinning as her fingers drift down his arm. “She needed to make the inaugural trip; I just encouraged the next ten—” 

“More like twenty.”

“Ok, the next fifteen or... Hey, you got a little...” Pulling her into his lap, he brushes a kiss over her forehead as he palms some excess aloe from her hand and streaks it across her nape, down the side of her neck. “It’s ok though; we can soothe each other.” 


End file.
